Games advisory

An incident outside Delhis Jama Masjid on Sunday morning remains mired in mystery. Two Taiwanese nationals,part of a group that was in town to film a travel show,were injured when two men shot at them as they were boarding their bus. The identities of the assailants were not immediately obvious,and the police were wary of taking a terror groups claim at face value. The police said they could not rule out the possibility that they were local mischief-makers and perhaps unaligned to a terror group or organised crime. But with the city bustling with advance security teams for the Commonwealth Games,the incident has inevitably become more than an isolated case of possibly petty crime.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was quick to reassure edgy participants that security for the Games is under control,and there is no need to panic. Big sport anywhere in the world now operates in an arena of heightened security threat. The very fact of the congregation of athletes in a high-profile event makes security preparations a key concern,and it is right that government authorities are straining to instil confidence that they are in command of the situation.

The Jama Masjid shooting recalls the way Beijing was on edge when a relative of an American Olympic coach was killed in the Forbidden City. In the end,the attack turned out to be isolated,but it highlighted how easy it was to perturb visitors,never mind the awe-inspiring photographs before the Olympics of paramilitary personnel on Segways taking aim.